I picked these up at the Downtown Evanston Farmers’ Market in Illinois. They looked so gorgeous in the vendor’s stall that I couldn’t bear to leave them behind. There are three kinds of onions here: baby leek, Tropea and spring onion. Although all three varieties had a similar flavor, the Tropea onions were somewhat sweeter and milder than the others.

This was my first impulse purchase involving onions and I didn’t have a plan. After almost a week in the refrigerator, they started to look less photogenic and I was forced to improvise. Sauteing them in olive oil with garlic and sea salt until they just began to caramelize, I served the onion mixture on top of pan-fried tilapia.